directed by Matthew Vaughn
written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn
The prospect of seeing the prim-and-proper Colin Firth (The King's Speech) kicking some serious ass was more than enough to make me want to see this adaptation of yet another hyper-violent comic book series written by Mark Millar, this one titled "The Secret Service," and I'm happy to say that this film does not disappoint on that front.
The title refers to a super secret independent organization of spies founded just after World War I by wealthy English aristocrats who had lost their sons to the war. At the beginning of the film, a team of Kingsman agents invades an unnamed fortress in the Middle East, and are in the middle of interrogating a man they have captured when he detonates a grenade with his teeth. One of the group sacrifices himself, covering the grenade with his body and getting killed in the process. The group leader, agent Harry Hart a.k.a. Gallahad (Firth), contacts the late agent's wife and son, giving them a medal and a pledge that the organization will grant them a single favor through a phone call, whenever they should need it. The widow is too grief-stricken to accept, but the young Eggsy takes the medal, no questions asked.
Seventeen years later, the now adult Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and his mother live in a squalid apartment with her abusive new husband, a local toughie with a gang of young thugs as his entourage. When Eggsy, in a fit of pique following a verbal tussle, jacks the car of one of the thugs and crashes it, finding himself looking at jail time, he glances at the medal he has been wearing around his neck all these years, and decides to make the phone call. Charges are dropped immediately, and Eggsy receives a visit from Harry himself with a bit of a job offer. One of Kingsman's agents (Jack Davenport) has gotten killed by the mysterious, blade-legged Gazelle (Sofia Boutella) and there's an opening on the team.
After initially refusing, Eggsy decides to try out for the spot, but it isn't that easy; with the exception of fellow applicant Roxy (Sophie Cookson) he doesn't make a whole lot of friends, and the trials themselves are quite difficult. Fortunately, Eggsy is quite capable, and has considerable talent to muster, and not a moment too soon; Kingsman will need a good recruit to be able to take on multimedia magnate Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson with a lisp), employer of the aforementioned Gazelle, a multi-millionaire with the best of intentions but the most murderous of grand plans.
While Firth as a gentlemen spy with some mad fighting skills was the highlight of this movie for me, it has a lot of other things going for it, like Jackson's campy villain, Boutella's somewhat novel henchwoman, a reasonably affable lead in Taron Egerton, and some pretty good laughs. Oddly enough, this movie shares DNA not only with James Bond but with Austin Powers, complete with a rather crude sex joke at the very end. What it doesn't have is anything compelling to say about the human condition, which is all right, considering I wasn't expecting anything like that from the get-go. Millar being Millar, there seem to be some subversive undertones to the narrative, but they are drowned out by the somewhat prodigious displays of violence.
(mild spoilers)
Speaking of the violence, while it wasn't really surprising that the director and writer behind Kick-Ass would produce yet another searingly violent tale, I confess I was genuinely uncomfortable with one stretch of somewhat protracted violence late in the film, and it wasn't the kind of discomfort I would feel watching a video about the Holocaust or the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. The church massacre scene, arguably the action centerpiece of the film, is actually a masterclass in camera movement and fight choreography, but thematically, I had problems with it. In it, Jackson's Valentine takes his electronic doomsday device out for a test drive, ramping up the aggression of everyone in range of the signal and removing all of their inhibitions. Think of it as an electronically-induced version of 28 Days Later. Firth's Hart gets caught up right in the middle of it, but is saved by his considerable fighting skills...that is to say, he butchers almost everyone around him. Now, all of this happens at a hate church in Kentucky, so clearly there's some kind of intent to have the audience cheering through all of this gore. To cap it all off, Vaughn plays frenetic, somewhat upbeat rock music throughout all of the carnage. Basically the entire thing is played for laughs, but frankly, after the first fifteen seconds of mass slaughter I didn't really find it all that funny. A friend of mine said it pretty well, though; it was sickly hypnotic.
I know of a few people who were offended by the fairly crude sex joke at the end, though I can admit I chuckled a little at it. I cannot, however, quite get over that church scene. A few months ago, at the beginning of season 5 of The Walking Dead, the show's protagonists killed a group of cannibals who were basically trying to hunt them down and eat them. From a narrative perspective, one would think it would feel righteous and satisfying, but instead, it felt unremittingly dark, especially considering that it took place in a church. Here, the melee in the church is supposed to be funny. Now, I laughed when Hit Girl skewered, sliced and diced a bunch of lowlifes in Kick-Ass, and in truth, I laughed for a few seconds when the fight in the church broke out, but damn, it was just too long. I know there have been similarly bloody sequences in films like The Raid: Redemption, but I haven't seen them so I can't really compare.
I do know that this scene has offended a lot of people; the authorities of a few Asian countries have cut the scene from the movie altogether. I would never advocate censorship, not even for this, but I get where they were coming from. The scene really felt like violence for the sake of violence, really.
(end spoilers)
To end the review on a high note, though, I genuinely enjoyed this movie, my qualms with the church scene aside. It was worth the time and money spent, and delivered on what it promised: a stylish action-packed send-up of the spy genre. And just as I hoped, I got to see Colin Firth as an amazing, ass-kicking superspy. He has erased the image of his hilarious non-fight with Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones Diary from my memory with his startling action-hero turn.
7/10
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Friday, February 20, 2015
Andy and Lana's Last Big Hurrah? A Review of Jupiter Ascending (Spoilers)
directed and written by the Wachowskis
I was one of the few people I know who, when Star Wars: Episode I came out in 1999, was more blown away by Andy and then-Larry Wachowski's then-groundbreaking sci-fi/martial arts hybrid The Matrix.
It was that initial affection for their work that enabled me to sit through two laborious sequels to The Matrix, and the DVD of their infamous anime adaptation Speed Racer. Such was my admiration for that one movie that I was able to forgive them three consecutive transgressions before deciding to pass on the sprawling, ambitious but widely ignored 2012 film Cloud Atlas, a complicated film that not even certified box-office titan Tom Hanks could save from commercial oblivion.
That notwithstanding, I was so awed by the trailer for Jupiter Ascending, however, that I was ready to jump on the Wachowski train yet again. I walked in hoping that they had rediscovered the mojo that had made The Matrix one of the most engaging films I had seen in my post-college youth.
Jupiter Ascending is the story of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) a Russian immigrant to the United States who lives and works in Chicago with her family, who run a house-cleaning business. She discovers, to her shock, that she is actually the heir to an intergalactic empire, the spoils of which are being fought over by three alien siblings, Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) and Titus (Douglas Booth). Jupiter is apparently the reincarnation of their mother, the matriarch of the house of Abrasax, and as a result, each of the siblings wants to get hold of her for their own purposes. Balem wants her dead outright, while Kalique and Titus have slightly different plans. Kalique hires a team of trackers, while Titus hires one, Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) a former soldier. Caine gets to Jupiter first, but it is only after a series of harrowing chases, double-crosses and meetings with the siblings that Jupiter finally realizes why the three of them want the planet Earth as badly as they do, and realizes that she is the only thing standing between them and the end of the human life on Earth.
Now, the good news is that the film is utterly gorgeous. From John Toll's exquisite cinematography to the sumptuous production design that was drawn from a myriad of inspirations to some truly amazing special effects, the Wachowski siblings have made it clear that they have lost none of their flair for the visually spectacular. I'll grant that constantly "dusky" backdrops made it easier for the VFX teams to hide flaws in the computer-generated imagery, but that detracted very little from the overall look of the film, which, to my mind anyway, made the very best use of camera technology that Hollywood currently has to offer. The hurricane-choked atmosphere surrounding Balem's ship, when viewed from space, is stunning; it's basically like a painting. The movie is simply wonderful to behold.
(Spoilers)
The problem, however, that the story of this movie, the Wachowski's first all-new, original intellectual property since The Matrix, distinctly feels like a rehash of that movie in some very specific and crucial ways. Jupiter, like Keanu Reeves' Neo, learns that the world is not quite what she thought it was. Also, the people of earth, like they were in the post-apocalyptic world of The Matrix, are cattle here; they just don't know it. In The Matrix, humans were batteries for robots. Here, we're basically beauty care products. This is not an exaggeration.
(Spoilers)
It seems Warner Brothers asked the Wachowskis to come up with something new, and apparently the best they could do was recycle their one really good idea. It doesn't help that actors like Eddie Redmayne probably spent most of their energy to keep from laughing out loud reciting some truly risible dialogue. Not only that, but the pacing, for reasons I cannot quite understand, is simply terrible. The movie's two plus hours feel more like three.
That's not to say the film doesn't have anything else going for it; apart from the eye-popping if occasionally generic action sequences, most of which feature Tatum's Wise in action, there's a highly entertaining sequence in which Jupiter gets a taste of intergalactic bureaucracy when she accomplishes the necessary documents to establish her title to Earth, one in which renowned director Terry Gilliam actually has a pretty prominent role. It's a hilarious sequence that, quite, honestly, belongs in a better movie than this one was.
Considering the critical thrashing and box-office bitch-slapping this film has received, one wonders just how many more blank checks, if at all, Warner Brothers (or any other studio, for that matter) will be willing to write for these two.
6/10
I was one of the few people I know who, when Star Wars: Episode I came out in 1999, was more blown away by Andy and then-Larry Wachowski's then-groundbreaking sci-fi/martial arts hybrid The Matrix.
It was that initial affection for their work that enabled me to sit through two laborious sequels to The Matrix, and the DVD of their infamous anime adaptation Speed Racer. Such was my admiration for that one movie that I was able to forgive them three consecutive transgressions before deciding to pass on the sprawling, ambitious but widely ignored 2012 film Cloud Atlas, a complicated film that not even certified box-office titan Tom Hanks could save from commercial oblivion.
That notwithstanding, I was so awed by the trailer for Jupiter Ascending, however, that I was ready to jump on the Wachowski train yet again. I walked in hoping that they had rediscovered the mojo that had made The Matrix one of the most engaging films I had seen in my post-college youth.
Jupiter Ascending is the story of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) a Russian immigrant to the United States who lives and works in Chicago with her family, who run a house-cleaning business. She discovers, to her shock, that she is actually the heir to an intergalactic empire, the spoils of which are being fought over by three alien siblings, Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) and Titus (Douglas Booth). Jupiter is apparently the reincarnation of their mother, the matriarch of the house of Abrasax, and as a result, each of the siblings wants to get hold of her for their own purposes. Balem wants her dead outright, while Kalique and Titus have slightly different plans. Kalique hires a team of trackers, while Titus hires one, Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) a former soldier. Caine gets to Jupiter first, but it is only after a series of harrowing chases, double-crosses and meetings with the siblings that Jupiter finally realizes why the three of them want the planet Earth as badly as they do, and realizes that she is the only thing standing between them and the end of the human life on Earth.
Now, the good news is that the film is utterly gorgeous. From John Toll's exquisite cinematography to the sumptuous production design that was drawn from a myriad of inspirations to some truly amazing special effects, the Wachowski siblings have made it clear that they have lost none of their flair for the visually spectacular. I'll grant that constantly "dusky" backdrops made it easier for the VFX teams to hide flaws in the computer-generated imagery, but that detracted very little from the overall look of the film, which, to my mind anyway, made the very best use of camera technology that Hollywood currently has to offer. The hurricane-choked atmosphere surrounding Balem's ship, when viewed from space, is stunning; it's basically like a painting. The movie is simply wonderful to behold.
(Spoilers)
The problem, however, that the story of this movie, the Wachowski's first all-new, original intellectual property since The Matrix, distinctly feels like a rehash of that movie in some very specific and crucial ways. Jupiter, like Keanu Reeves' Neo, learns that the world is not quite what she thought it was. Also, the people of earth, like they were in the post-apocalyptic world of The Matrix, are cattle here; they just don't know it. In The Matrix, humans were batteries for robots. Here, we're basically beauty care products. This is not an exaggeration.
(Spoilers)
It seems Warner Brothers asked the Wachowskis to come up with something new, and apparently the best they could do was recycle their one really good idea. It doesn't help that actors like Eddie Redmayne probably spent most of their energy to keep from laughing out loud reciting some truly risible dialogue. Not only that, but the pacing, for reasons I cannot quite understand, is simply terrible. The movie's two plus hours feel more like three.
That's not to say the film doesn't have anything else going for it; apart from the eye-popping if occasionally generic action sequences, most of which feature Tatum's Wise in action, there's a highly entertaining sequence in which Jupiter gets a taste of intergalactic bureaucracy when she accomplishes the necessary documents to establish her title to Earth, one in which renowned director Terry Gilliam actually has a pretty prominent role. It's a hilarious sequence that, quite, honestly, belongs in a better movie than this one was.
Considering the critical thrashing and box-office bitch-slapping this film has received, one wonders just how many more blank checks, if at all, Warner Brothers (or any other studio, for that matter) will be willing to write for these two.
6/10
Thursday, February 12, 2015
My List of Things I Hope Sony and Marvel Remember in Rebooting Spider-Man
Now that the Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have finally seen eye-to-eye on what to do with my favorite fictional character Spider-Man, I am a happy fan. There are a few things I hope they remember as they sit down and prepare to relaunch the franchise with the sixth movie since 2002.
1. NO MORE ORIGIN STORY - Hands down, one of the most difficult things to sit through about the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man was the retread of his origin story, especially the death of Uncle Ben. Sam Raimi's take on that particular aspect of Spider-Man's history was pitch perfect, and Marc Webb's was just clunky in comparison, although by having the thief-killer get away, they did establish a motive for Peter to play the masked vigilante before he realized he had a higher calling.
Still, all together, the Spider-Man movies have made something like $4 billion at the global box-office, meaning it's rather unlikely that most people would still remain unfamiliar with Spider-Man's back story. I say this is on my wish list, because to my mind there is still the risk that Sony/Marvel might trot one out just to emphasize that all previous continuity has been discarded. I think the origin can be covered in an opening credits sequence.
2. KEEP THE LATEST ITERATION OF THE COSTUME - After talking about something to discard, I'd like to mention something that I think Sony/Marvel should keep, and that's the costume that Spider-Man wore in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was basically brilliant, and which took everything that was good from both the comic books and the previous movies and put it up on the screen. The first Amazing Spider-Man costume from the 2012 movie was awful, and to my mind was developed solely to distance the reboot from the original trilogy, especially Spider-Man 3. That might be the case here as Sony may try to start fresh, but as with the origin, some things don't need to be done over again. It wasn't the costume designer's fault that the last movie sucked, after all.
3. MILES MORALES WON'T WORK - There are rumors that Sony is contemplating using Miles Morales, the half-African-American, half-Puerto-Rican kid who became Spider-Man in the "Ultimate" universe after the death of that universe's Peter Parker. As a reader who owns thirty-plus issues featuring Miles as Spider-Man, I can categorically say that this won't work. Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man in a very specific narrative context, one which involves the death of Peter Parker, and something tells me there's no way in hell that Sony or Marvel will want to kill that character. One cannot simply insert Miles into Peter's back story, because that wouldn't be Miles, it would just be ethnic recasting, and considering the internet firestorm Fox endured for Michael B. Jordan, a black actor, as the traditionally Caucasian Johnny Storm, I'm not sure that would go over so well with a studio looking to rejuvenate an ailing franchise.
4. SPIDER-MAN DESERVES AN EPIC MUSICAL THEME - This is just a matter of personal preference, but of the three composers who came up with themes for Spider-Man, I liked the work of James Horner the best, and not just because I've long had a soft spot for his work. For me it perfectly captured the balance between earthbound Peter Parker and high-flying Spider-Man. Hans Zimmer wrote a solid job, even though his theme seemed to have been lifted from Mark Isham's music for the baseball drama 42. Unfortunately, it is more likely than not that all of the previous Spider-Man music will be discarded in keeping with the spirit of rebooting. Whoever they get to compose music should give Spider-Man a tune that is both distinct and memorable, and as much as possible, they should steer clear of cookie-cutter composers like Brian Tyler. I think Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino would be a good fit of the webslinger.
Finally...
5. PETER PARKER HAS TO BE SOCIALLY INEPT - While I understand the need to replace him, I liked Andrew Garfield's performance for the most part. What I didn't like about him was that he came across less like an outcast and more like a rebel of sorts. Basically, though Garfield's performance definitely had heart and while he understood the character pretty well, he wasn't quite as socially inept as Peter Parker is traditionally supposed to be. Tobey Maguire, whose performance was also flawed in quite a few ways, got this right about the character, though at times he overplayed it. Peter Parker is a nerd, after all, and he needs an actor to play him like one, maybe not in the mold of the cast of Big Bang Theory, but definitely one a little less charming than Andrew Garfield.
1. NO MORE ORIGIN STORY - Hands down, one of the most difficult things to sit through about the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man was the retread of his origin story, especially the death of Uncle Ben. Sam Raimi's take on that particular aspect of Spider-Man's history was pitch perfect, and Marc Webb's was just clunky in comparison, although by having the thief-killer get away, they did establish a motive for Peter to play the masked vigilante before he realized he had a higher calling.
Still, all together, the Spider-Man movies have made something like $4 billion at the global box-office, meaning it's rather unlikely that most people would still remain unfamiliar with Spider-Man's back story. I say this is on my wish list, because to my mind there is still the risk that Sony/Marvel might trot one out just to emphasize that all previous continuity has been discarded. I think the origin can be covered in an opening credits sequence.
2. KEEP THE LATEST ITERATION OF THE COSTUME - After talking about something to discard, I'd like to mention something that I think Sony/Marvel should keep, and that's the costume that Spider-Man wore in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was basically brilliant, and which took everything that was good from both the comic books and the previous movies and put it up on the screen. The first Amazing Spider-Man costume from the 2012 movie was awful, and to my mind was developed solely to distance the reboot from the original trilogy, especially Spider-Man 3. That might be the case here as Sony may try to start fresh, but as with the origin, some things don't need to be done over again. It wasn't the costume designer's fault that the last movie sucked, after all.
3. MILES MORALES WON'T WORK - There are rumors that Sony is contemplating using Miles Morales, the half-African-American, half-Puerto-Rican kid who became Spider-Man in the "Ultimate" universe after the death of that universe's Peter Parker. As a reader who owns thirty-plus issues featuring Miles as Spider-Man, I can categorically say that this won't work. Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man in a very specific narrative context, one which involves the death of Peter Parker, and something tells me there's no way in hell that Sony or Marvel will want to kill that character. One cannot simply insert Miles into Peter's back story, because that wouldn't be Miles, it would just be ethnic recasting, and considering the internet firestorm Fox endured for Michael B. Jordan, a black actor, as the traditionally Caucasian Johnny Storm, I'm not sure that would go over so well with a studio looking to rejuvenate an ailing franchise.
4. SPIDER-MAN DESERVES AN EPIC MUSICAL THEME - This is just a matter of personal preference, but of the three composers who came up with themes for Spider-Man, I liked the work of James Horner the best, and not just because I've long had a soft spot for his work. For me it perfectly captured the balance between earthbound Peter Parker and high-flying Spider-Man. Hans Zimmer wrote a solid job, even though his theme seemed to have been lifted from Mark Isham's music for the baseball drama 42. Unfortunately, it is more likely than not that all of the previous Spider-Man music will be discarded in keeping with the spirit of rebooting. Whoever they get to compose music should give Spider-Man a tune that is both distinct and memorable, and as much as possible, they should steer clear of cookie-cutter composers like Brian Tyler. I think Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino would be a good fit of the webslinger.
Finally...
5. PETER PARKER HAS TO BE SOCIALLY INEPT - While I understand the need to replace him, I liked Andrew Garfield's performance for the most part. What I didn't like about him was that he came across less like an outcast and more like a rebel of sorts. Basically, though Garfield's performance definitely had heart and while he understood the character pretty well, he wasn't quite as socially inept as Peter Parker is traditionally supposed to be. Tobey Maguire, whose performance was also flawed in quite a few ways, got this right about the character, though at times he overplayed it. Peter Parker is a nerd, after all, and he needs an actor to play him like one, maybe not in the mold of the cast of Big Bang Theory, but definitely one a little less charming than Andrew Garfield.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Marvel, Sony and Spidey: Hollywood's Most Frustrating Love Triangle
As of late last December, Sony Pictures' franchise film The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the lowest-grossing Marvel comic book adaptation at the U.S. box-office, in a year when there were a total of FIVE movies based on Marvel Comics properties, namely: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Guardians of the Galaxy, Big Hero 6, and TASM 2. Last night, TASM 2 was the only film among those five not to receive a single Oscar nomination, with the others collecting at least one each, and Guardians of the Galaxy managing to pick up two.
Considering the commercial and critical highs which Sony's Spider-Man franchise once enjoyed, this has got to hurt. Once upon a time, Spider-Man was a certified box-office titan; the very first Spider-Man movie was the very first movie to ever gross over $100 million in a single weekend, a feat that not even Harry Potter or any of the Star Wars prequels, then the box-office gold standard, could manage. Spider-Man 2 remains the only film based on a Marvel comic ever to win an Academy Award (visual effects, 2004). Two of the first three Spider-Man movies were the highest grossing films at the global box-office in their respective years of release. Basically, while films like X-Men and Blade established Marvel-based movies as credible box-office players, the towering performances of the Spider-Man movies was what established that putting the "Marvel" logo before a movie was a virtual guarantee of its success.
All of that seems a distant memory now. Even though 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man pulled in surprisingly respectable grosses worldwide for a supposedly unwanted reboot, TASM 2 left no doubt that the once-widely loved series of films has lost a good chunk of its audience.
In the midst of all of this, the recent revelation that Sony has actually been in talks with Marvel for the crossover to happen is at once the most exciting and frustrating bit of movie-related information I have heard in a long time. It's exciting, because I can't honestly think of any other way to describe the thought of Spider-Man becoming part of a shared cinematic universe. It's frustrating, because nothing has come of these talks, except for Sony's clearly hollow boasts that it doesn't need Marvel Studios to keep the character interesting.
The thing is, fanboy hyperbole aside, this is a crossover that has to happen. One needs only look at the success of The Avengers and even non-Marvel projects like The Walking Dead to know that these characters are so much stronger together than they are apart. The goodwill from The Avengers has been nothing short of astonishing; all of the solo "Avenger" movies that came after the 2012 box-office phenomenon saw significant bumps in their international box-office, and all of them, it's worth pointing out, grossed more than the last Spider-Man movie, at least in terms of U.S. box-office. The X-Men franchise got a real shot in the arm this year (and even ended up outgrossing Spidey, once the more favored of the two properties), because of the novel premise of merging the old and new casts. Ensemble is the way to go; even Superman and Batman are learning this particular lesson.
Spider-man is the only major superhero property these days that doesn't involve any kind of team or team-up potential, and it's worth noting that all of the Marvel properties that beat him at the U.S. box office this year either involved teams, or characters who were part of prominent teams. Heck, the Captain America sequel featured one of his Avengers teammates in a pretty pivotal role.
As the saying goes: if you can't beat them, join them.
I think I speak for millions of Spider-Man fans, when I say with all affection and respect to Sony, who are responsible for bringing my favorite character in all of fiction to the big screen:
You can't beat them.
Considering the commercial and critical highs which Sony's Spider-Man franchise once enjoyed, this has got to hurt. Once upon a time, Spider-Man was a certified box-office titan; the very first Spider-Man movie was the very first movie to ever gross over $100 million in a single weekend, a feat that not even Harry Potter or any of the Star Wars prequels, then the box-office gold standard, could manage. Spider-Man 2 remains the only film based on a Marvel comic ever to win an Academy Award (visual effects, 2004). Two of the first three Spider-Man movies were the highest grossing films at the global box-office in their respective years of release. Basically, while films like X-Men and Blade established Marvel-based movies as credible box-office players, the towering performances of the Spider-Man movies was what established that putting the "Marvel" logo before a movie was a virtual guarantee of its success.
All of that seems a distant memory now. Even though 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man pulled in surprisingly respectable grosses worldwide for a supposedly unwanted reboot, TASM 2 left no doubt that the once-widely loved series of films has lost a good chunk of its audience.
In the midst of all of this, the recent revelation that Sony has actually been in talks with Marvel for the crossover to happen is at once the most exciting and frustrating bit of movie-related information I have heard in a long time. It's exciting, because I can't honestly think of any other way to describe the thought of Spider-Man becoming part of a shared cinematic universe. It's frustrating, because nothing has come of these talks, except for Sony's clearly hollow boasts that it doesn't need Marvel Studios to keep the character interesting.
The thing is, fanboy hyperbole aside, this is a crossover that has to happen. One needs only look at the success of The Avengers and even non-Marvel projects like The Walking Dead to know that these characters are so much stronger together than they are apart. The goodwill from The Avengers has been nothing short of astonishing; all of the solo "Avenger" movies that came after the 2012 box-office phenomenon saw significant bumps in their international box-office, and all of them, it's worth pointing out, grossed more than the last Spider-Man movie, at least in terms of U.S. box-office. The X-Men franchise got a real shot in the arm this year (and even ended up outgrossing Spidey, once the more favored of the two properties), because of the novel premise of merging the old and new casts. Ensemble is the way to go; even Superman and Batman are learning this particular lesson.
Spider-man is the only major superhero property these days that doesn't involve any kind of team or team-up potential, and it's worth noting that all of the Marvel properties that beat him at the U.S. box office this year either involved teams, or characters who were part of prominent teams. Heck, the Captain America sequel featured one of his Avengers teammates in a pretty pivotal role.
As the saying goes: if you can't beat them, join them.
I think I speak for millions of Spider-Man fans, when I say with all affection and respect to Sony, who are responsible for bringing my favorite character in all of fiction to the big screen:
You can't beat them.
Chemistry is Everything: A Review of English Only Please
directed by Dan Villegas
written by Antoinette Jadaone and Anjeli Pessumal
As a person with limited time and cash but a fervent love for movies, I generally gravitate these days towards movies I either know or believe I will like as well as those I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. After I saw the trailer, English Only Please became just such a movie.
Julian (Derek Ramsay) an American of Filipino descent (on his mother's side), is about to take a trip to the Philippines, and he has a very specific errand in mind: he wants to tell his ex-girlfriend off in Filipino. He already knows exactly what he wants to say, but his problem is that, having grown up in the United States, he cannot speak a word of Tagalog. He goes online to find a translator, and of all of the candidates, he ends up picking Tere (Jennylyn Mercado) an English tutor who is basically the sex-toy of her ne'er do well "not-boyfriend" (Kean Cipriano). Of course, they meet, get to know each other and...well, it's fairly self-explanatory where the plot goes from this point onward.
There really isn't much else to the plot besides jilted boy meets neglected girl, but if there's one thing I know from having watched romantic comedies from four different decades (I started in the eighties), it's that plot is nowhere near as important as a credible chemistry between the two lead actors, and Mercado and Ramsay have it in spades.
I used to follow Mercado when she was still a gangly teenager on the television show Encantadia. I found her portrayal charming enough, and she was as the vernacular goes simpatica, but even though I knew she was a capable enough actress I found myself pleasantly surprised by her performance in this movie. Her comic timing was brilliant, and the best thing about her portrayal was how genuine it felt. Too often in Filipino movies and even in romantic comedies in general actors put on performances that are often cloying and manipulative, but Mercado rarely strayed into that territory, if at all, and even when she did, the conviction of her performance was more than enough to overcome any sense that she was playing it to the hilt.
Ramsay, of whom I have not seen a whole lot of outside of television commercials, was a perfect foil for Mercado; his Julian was the "straight man" to Mercado's somewhat zany Tere, and their dynamic really plays out well, especially since the audience already knows exactly where they're going. Also, I don't really know how well or poorly Ramsay actually speaks Tagalog in real life, but he really did a good job of playing the clueless "Fil-Am," especially in a scene where, having been misled by Tere, he sincerely congratulates a local toughie who has beaten him at checkers by telling him "bakla ka!" At any rate, he was a lot more fun to watch than the insufferable KC Montero in Kubot.
Cipriano is appropriately slimy Tere's not-quite-boyfriend who basically just uses Tere as a sugar mommy, while Cai Cortez is a hoot as Tere's BFF. The fact that her single-mom character is with a different guy in every scene she's in is one of the film's running jokes, the other one being a constant reference to traffic on EDSA as an (often untrue) excuse for being late.
The film's script may not have anything profound to say about the human condition, but it really works well, and the dialogue feels quite natural rolling off the actor's tongues. Sure, some of the jokes might not be the most politically correct, and there overused story tropes all over the place but there is real wit to most of the humor here; it's several cuts above the usual brainless Vic Sotto tripe. The actors really carry the whole thing.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get this review out quite as quickly as I would have liked, which means this movie may not be in as many theaters as it was when I wrote this, but even though the Metro Manila Film Festival is over and the usual Hollywood product is starting to creep back into the market, this is still worth checking out, wherever it may be playing.
8.5/10
written by Antoinette Jadaone and Anjeli Pessumal
As a person with limited time and cash but a fervent love for movies, I generally gravitate these days towards movies I either know or believe I will like as well as those I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. After I saw the trailer, English Only Please became just such a movie.
Julian (Derek Ramsay) an American of Filipino descent (on his mother's side), is about to take a trip to the Philippines, and he has a very specific errand in mind: he wants to tell his ex-girlfriend off in Filipino. He already knows exactly what he wants to say, but his problem is that, having grown up in the United States, he cannot speak a word of Tagalog. He goes online to find a translator, and of all of the candidates, he ends up picking Tere (Jennylyn Mercado) an English tutor who is basically the sex-toy of her ne'er do well "not-boyfriend" (Kean Cipriano). Of course, they meet, get to know each other and...well, it's fairly self-explanatory where the plot goes from this point onward.
There really isn't much else to the plot besides jilted boy meets neglected girl, but if there's one thing I know from having watched romantic comedies from four different decades (I started in the eighties), it's that plot is nowhere near as important as a credible chemistry between the two lead actors, and Mercado and Ramsay have it in spades.
I used to follow Mercado when she was still a gangly teenager on the television show Encantadia. I found her portrayal charming enough, and she was as the vernacular goes simpatica, but even though I knew she was a capable enough actress I found myself pleasantly surprised by her performance in this movie. Her comic timing was brilliant, and the best thing about her portrayal was how genuine it felt. Too often in Filipino movies and even in romantic comedies in general actors put on performances that are often cloying and manipulative, but Mercado rarely strayed into that territory, if at all, and even when she did, the conviction of her performance was more than enough to overcome any sense that she was playing it to the hilt.
Ramsay, of whom I have not seen a whole lot of outside of television commercials, was a perfect foil for Mercado; his Julian was the "straight man" to Mercado's somewhat zany Tere, and their dynamic really plays out well, especially since the audience already knows exactly where they're going. Also, I don't really know how well or poorly Ramsay actually speaks Tagalog in real life, but he really did a good job of playing the clueless "Fil-Am," especially in a scene where, having been misled by Tere, he sincerely congratulates a local toughie who has beaten him at checkers by telling him "bakla ka!" At any rate, he was a lot more fun to watch than the insufferable KC Montero in Kubot.
Cipriano is appropriately slimy Tere's not-quite-boyfriend who basically just uses Tere as a sugar mommy, while Cai Cortez is a hoot as Tere's BFF. The fact that her single-mom character is with a different guy in every scene she's in is one of the film's running jokes, the other one being a constant reference to traffic on EDSA as an (often untrue) excuse for being late.
The film's script may not have anything profound to say about the human condition, but it really works well, and the dialogue feels quite natural rolling off the actor's tongues. Sure, some of the jokes might not be the most politically correct, and there overused story tropes all over the place but there is real wit to most of the humor here; it's several cuts above the usual brainless Vic Sotto tripe. The actors really carry the whole thing.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get this review out quite as quickly as I would have liked, which means this movie may not be in as many theaters as it was when I wrote this, but even though the Metro Manila Film Festival is over and the usual Hollywood product is starting to creep back into the market, this is still worth checking out, wherever it may be playing.
8.5/10
Saturday, January 10, 2015
The Raid Meets the Army of Darkness: A Review of Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles II
directed by Erik Matti
written by Michiko Yamamoto, Erik Matti
Every year, starting from Christmas Day until the second week of the new year, residents of Metro Manila area "treated" to the annual Metro Manila Film Festival, during which all foreign movies are barred from release in movie theaters and only local movies, and those entered specifically in the festival, are screened for the public. Given that my movie entertainment usually consists of Hollywood-generated product, this is often a trying time for me (though lately, not so much, as I don't watch movies as often as I used to), but this year in particular, I was determined to go with the flow and basically just enjoy myself.
My wife and I agreed to a double-header; we would watch Erik Matti's Kubot and Dan Villegas' English Only Please, the only two movies on this year's roster we found appealing.
First up was Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles Part II, the sequel to 2012's Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles, a stylized action/horror/comedy hybrid that got rave reviews, and a movie that my wife and I were quite sorry to have missed. Needless to say, expectations were fairly high as we walked into the theater.
Kubot begins where Tiktik ends, with Makoy (Dingdong Dantes) Nestor (Joey Marquez) and the survivors from the first film hopping on a jeep to take them away from Pulupandan and home to Manila, when they are attacked by a band of strange, hairy-looking "kubot" or another form of aswang, who exact terrible revenge on Makoy for his slaughter of the Tiktik from the last film. Years later, sans a wife, a child and his right hand, Makoy lives with Nestor and his wife Nieves (Lotlot de Leon) in Manila, where he also works as a mechanic, when a new aswang menace emerges. It seems a group of aswangs led by the progressive, American-raised Doms (KC Montero) has a terrifying scheme which involves transforming people into aswang by feeding them hot dogs made from ground-up people and aswang saliva. A group of aswang friendly to people are willing to stop them, led by the youthful Dr. Lex (Isabelle Daza) but ultimately they will need the help of Makoy, who may or may not be willing to give it.
Now, I understand that we cannot expect Hollywood-quality visual effects from a local effort, for budgetary reasons if nothing else, but the problems I had with this film really had nothing to do with the computer-generated imagery. No, my problems were with the script that promised so much and yet delivered so little, some atrociously bad acting, and idea after idea cribbed from other action movies. The hero loses a hand and puts on a bad-ass, lethal prosthesis? How Sam Raimi. The hero faces down a whole bunch of bad guys in a dark and dingy corridor and takes them down with hand-to-hand fighting? How Gareth Evans. There are people-friendly aswang who have decided to feed on animals instead? How Stephanie Meyer. Slow-mo wire fu? How Wachowski siblings. And the list goes on. The fact that the movie does not take it seriously is definitely a plus point as it suggests that I might have seen references to all the films I mentioned, instead of plain old ripoffs. I want to believe that these were tongue-in-cheek, deliberate references rather than efforts to make the movie "kewl" with borrowed material, and maybe the fact that part of me does is what keeps me from giving this film a worse score.
Another aspect of the film that made it difficult to sit through was the horrible choice of villain in KC Montero. His inability to speak Tagalog properly may have been written into the script, but it didn't make his line delivery any less cringe-inducing to hear.
Fortunately, though, the film has some plus points: the whole plot of aswang trying to turn people into aswang by feeding them hot dogs is actually a brilliant jab at the processed food industry, which spends millions of pesos trying to convince us that hot dogs, which, to my knowledge, are made from God-only-knows-what, are safe for our children to consume on a daily basis. The scene where the health inspector pigs out on the bad guy's hot dogs and transforms in the process is a pretty funny highlight. Speaking of highlights, though, the scene in which Isabelle Daza's Lex summons her fellow aswang with a series of strange animal noises and dancing is, in a word, priceless. As funny as it is, it's actually integral to the plot as she basically saves their lives by doing it. Also, there's something utterly sexy about an attractive woman making a moderate fool of herself. I applaud Daza for being so incredibly game.
Another plus point, and one which is Matti's incredible ability to create atmosphere. The dingy Manila rooftop (Binondo, to be precise) where Makoy, Nestor and Nieves live is, for me, the best example of this. This particular location is perpetually filmed at night, and with its crumbling skyline it has a wonderfully grungy vibe that perfectly suits the grim and gritty vibe that a movie about fighting aswang should have. This is one of those instances where Matti's "indie" sensibility shines through; most of the film either is, or looks like it was shot on location, rather than in a sound studio (the first film was reportedly filmed entirely against green screen, a la 300), and the film is the better for it. Dingdong's extended monologue late in the film, which Matti filmed with multiple cameras to which he cuts several times, also has an "experimental cinema" vibe, though it didn't much appeal to me.
Overall, this film had the stink of "product" on it, almost as much as the hot dogs it decries, but enough of the director's quirks peek through to make me appreciate the better film hidden under all the least-common-denominator pap. I kind of long for the film that this could have been.
The film sets up another sequel, and as disappointing as this film was, I may give it a shot, even without the benefit of having no other movie to watch.
6/10
written by Michiko Yamamoto, Erik Matti
Every year, starting from Christmas Day until the second week of the new year, residents of Metro Manila area "treated" to the annual Metro Manila Film Festival, during which all foreign movies are barred from release in movie theaters and only local movies, and those entered specifically in the festival, are screened for the public. Given that my movie entertainment usually consists of Hollywood-generated product, this is often a trying time for me (though lately, not so much, as I don't watch movies as often as I used to), but this year in particular, I was determined to go with the flow and basically just enjoy myself.
My wife and I agreed to a double-header; we would watch Erik Matti's Kubot and Dan Villegas' English Only Please, the only two movies on this year's roster we found appealing.
First up was Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles Part II, the sequel to 2012's Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles, a stylized action/horror/comedy hybrid that got rave reviews, and a movie that my wife and I were quite sorry to have missed. Needless to say, expectations were fairly high as we walked into the theater.
Kubot begins where Tiktik ends, with Makoy (Dingdong Dantes) Nestor (Joey Marquez) and the survivors from the first film hopping on a jeep to take them away from Pulupandan and home to Manila, when they are attacked by a band of strange, hairy-looking "kubot" or another form of aswang, who exact terrible revenge on Makoy for his slaughter of the Tiktik from the last film. Years later, sans a wife, a child and his right hand, Makoy lives with Nestor and his wife Nieves (Lotlot de Leon) in Manila, where he also works as a mechanic, when a new aswang menace emerges. It seems a group of aswangs led by the progressive, American-raised Doms (KC Montero) has a terrifying scheme which involves transforming people into aswang by feeding them hot dogs made from ground-up people and aswang saliva. A group of aswang friendly to people are willing to stop them, led by the youthful Dr. Lex (Isabelle Daza) but ultimately they will need the help of Makoy, who may or may not be willing to give it.
Now, I understand that we cannot expect Hollywood-quality visual effects from a local effort, for budgetary reasons if nothing else, but the problems I had with this film really had nothing to do with the computer-generated imagery. No, my problems were with the script that promised so much and yet delivered so little, some atrociously bad acting, and idea after idea cribbed from other action movies. The hero loses a hand and puts on a bad-ass, lethal prosthesis? How Sam Raimi. The hero faces down a whole bunch of bad guys in a dark and dingy corridor and takes them down with hand-to-hand fighting? How Gareth Evans. There are people-friendly aswang who have decided to feed on animals instead? How Stephanie Meyer. Slow-mo wire fu? How Wachowski siblings. And the list goes on. The fact that the movie does not take it seriously is definitely a plus point as it suggests that I might have seen references to all the films I mentioned, instead of plain old ripoffs. I want to believe that these were tongue-in-cheek, deliberate references rather than efforts to make the movie "kewl" with borrowed material, and maybe the fact that part of me does is what keeps me from giving this film a worse score.
Another aspect of the film that made it difficult to sit through was the horrible choice of villain in KC Montero. His inability to speak Tagalog properly may have been written into the script, but it didn't make his line delivery any less cringe-inducing to hear.
Fortunately, though, the film has some plus points: the whole plot of aswang trying to turn people into aswang by feeding them hot dogs is actually a brilliant jab at the processed food industry, which spends millions of pesos trying to convince us that hot dogs, which, to my knowledge, are made from God-only-knows-what, are safe for our children to consume on a daily basis. The scene where the health inspector pigs out on the bad guy's hot dogs and transforms in the process is a pretty funny highlight. Speaking of highlights, though, the scene in which Isabelle Daza's Lex summons her fellow aswang with a series of strange animal noises and dancing is, in a word, priceless. As funny as it is, it's actually integral to the plot as she basically saves their lives by doing it. Also, there's something utterly sexy about an attractive woman making a moderate fool of herself. I applaud Daza for being so incredibly game.
Another plus point, and one which is Matti's incredible ability to create atmosphere. The dingy Manila rooftop (Binondo, to be precise) where Makoy, Nestor and Nieves live is, for me, the best example of this. This particular location is perpetually filmed at night, and with its crumbling skyline it has a wonderfully grungy vibe that perfectly suits the grim and gritty vibe that a movie about fighting aswang should have. This is one of those instances where Matti's "indie" sensibility shines through; most of the film either is, or looks like it was shot on location, rather than in a sound studio (the first film was reportedly filmed entirely against green screen, a la 300), and the film is the better for it. Dingdong's extended monologue late in the film, which Matti filmed with multiple cameras to which he cuts several times, also has an "experimental cinema" vibe, though it didn't much appeal to me.
Overall, this film had the stink of "product" on it, almost as much as the hot dogs it decries, but enough of the director's quirks peek through to make me appreciate the better film hidden under all the least-common-denominator pap. I kind of long for the film that this could have been.
The film sets up another sequel, and as disappointing as this film was, I may give it a shot, even without the benefit of having no other movie to watch.
6/10
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
The (Supposedly) Last Middle-Earth Movie: A Review of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies
directed by Peter Jackson
written by Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro
Following the events in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) lays waste to Lake Town, until he is slain by Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans). The people from Lake Town are left without a home, and the lonely mountain is now without a fire breathing dragon to prevent anyone from claiming all of the gold in Erebor. Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), his band of dwarves, and their resident burglar, hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), hole up in the mountain, with the the dwarf king claiming his legacy. Unfortunately, others with a claim on the gold come knocking as well, including the now-destitute people of Laketown, whom he had promised a share of the treasure in exchange for boats and provisions to the mountain and the Woodland Elves led by Thranduil (Lee Pace) who have a claim on several jewels located in the massive treasure trove. The problem is, however, that now that Thorin has his hands on the treasure, he is possessed by uncontrollable greed and has no intention of even letting so much as a single coin of it go. He is, in fact, seized with a new obsession: finding the Arkenstone, a large jewel that will secure his dominion over all of Erebor. Meanwhile, even as the combined forces of Laketown and the elves look to collect their due through force, another enormous army of orcs led by Azog the Defiler (Manu Bennett) and his right hand Bolg (John Tui) also marches towards the Lonely Mountain. Will the intervention of Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) be enough to stave off the coming slaughter?
Given that I saw this movie two weeks ago, I'm not really sure why it's taken me so long to finally review it. I suppose one reason is that I wasn't quite sure how I felt about this film. It was a pretty satisfying conclusion to a reasonably entertaining series of films, but the fact that the entire series has felt rather bloated keeps me from singing this film's praises in the same way I used to cheer for the Lord of the Rings films. Of course, the computer-generated visual effects are far and away superior to those that featured in the LOTR movies, but then again, that's to be expected considering the advances in technology since then. The biggest problem of this movie, for me, is that for all the filmmakers' efforts, it still feels like a product.
I have nothing but praise for Richard Armitage, the English actor who plays Thorin who, after Bilbo, is effectively the central character of the saga. I like the way he captures Thorin's emotional journey and inner turmoil, even through a fair bit of prosthetics. Freeman is still a hoot as Bilbo, and of course, the ever-reliable McKellen turns in a solid turn as Gandalf, joined here by Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, and Christopher Lee as Sauron, all of whom featured in a pretty impressive action sequence midway through the film.
Some characters, however, cool their fight sequences, repeatedly betray the fact that they serve no real purpose in the story other than to hook otherwise uninterested fans. I am referring, of course, to Orlando Bloom's Legolas, who never appeared in The Hobbit, but who distinctly feels like he was written into these movies as a marketing tool for fans of the LOTR trilogy. The manner in which the script tries to infuse him with some kind of back story is somewhat embarrassing. Does he have mommy issues? Daddy issues? Existential crises? Unrequited love issues? The script hints at all of these but develops none of them. At the end of the day, Legolas serves his purpose as being an utter badass/boss-killer in the fight, but nothing more. Even Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) the female elf created for these movies to both balance out the sausage fest and to provide a rather poorly realized romantic subplot for both Legolas and Kili (Aidan Turner), fares little better, and quite frankly if the two of them had been written out of the entire story the films the narrative impact would be negligible.
In fact, it's padding like the Legolas-Tauriel-Kili love triangle that kind of hits home for me how superfluous so much of this film feels, even if it is a lot of good fun. I was also a bit irked at how Smaug's demise was moved to the beginning of this film rather than made into the climax of the last one, even though it did make sense from a sales perspective. The manner in which Bard dispatches Smaug, though, is appropriately heroic, if a little comical.
I watched this in conventional 3-D rather than the somewhat jarring "high frame rate" 3-D in which I watched The Desolation of Smaug, and truth be told I'm not sorry I made the change. I did try the film in a "4-D" theater, which meant that my seat lurched back and forth and fans blew in my face for key scenes. It was a novel experience, though one which I'm not keen to repeat, much like the creepy HFR.
In closing, I liked the film enough to recommend it, especially if it's reinstated in Philippine theaters after the Metro Manila Film Festival ends next week, but certainly not enough to rank it as a modern classic the way the original trilogy of films was.
6.5/10
written by Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro
Following the events in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) lays waste to Lake Town, until he is slain by Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans). The people from Lake Town are left without a home, and the lonely mountain is now without a fire breathing dragon to prevent anyone from claiming all of the gold in Erebor. Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), his band of dwarves, and their resident burglar, hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), hole up in the mountain, with the the dwarf king claiming his legacy. Unfortunately, others with a claim on the gold come knocking as well, including the now-destitute people of Laketown, whom he had promised a share of the treasure in exchange for boats and provisions to the mountain and the Woodland Elves led by Thranduil (Lee Pace) who have a claim on several jewels located in the massive treasure trove. The problem is, however, that now that Thorin has his hands on the treasure, he is possessed by uncontrollable greed and has no intention of even letting so much as a single coin of it go. He is, in fact, seized with a new obsession: finding the Arkenstone, a large jewel that will secure his dominion over all of Erebor. Meanwhile, even as the combined forces of Laketown and the elves look to collect their due through force, another enormous army of orcs led by Azog the Defiler (Manu Bennett) and his right hand Bolg (John Tui) also marches towards the Lonely Mountain. Will the intervention of Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) be enough to stave off the coming slaughter?
Given that I saw this movie two weeks ago, I'm not really sure why it's taken me so long to finally review it. I suppose one reason is that I wasn't quite sure how I felt about this film. It was a pretty satisfying conclusion to a reasonably entertaining series of films, but the fact that the entire series has felt rather bloated keeps me from singing this film's praises in the same way I used to cheer for the Lord of the Rings films. Of course, the computer-generated visual effects are far and away superior to those that featured in the LOTR movies, but then again, that's to be expected considering the advances in technology since then. The biggest problem of this movie, for me, is that for all the filmmakers' efforts, it still feels like a product.
I have nothing but praise for Richard Armitage, the English actor who plays Thorin who, after Bilbo, is effectively the central character of the saga. I like the way he captures Thorin's emotional journey and inner turmoil, even through a fair bit of prosthetics. Freeman is still a hoot as Bilbo, and of course, the ever-reliable McKellen turns in a solid turn as Gandalf, joined here by Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, and Christopher Lee as Sauron, all of whom featured in a pretty impressive action sequence midway through the film.
Some characters, however, cool their fight sequences, repeatedly betray the fact that they serve no real purpose in the story other than to hook otherwise uninterested fans. I am referring, of course, to Orlando Bloom's Legolas, who never appeared in The Hobbit, but who distinctly feels like he was written into these movies as a marketing tool for fans of the LOTR trilogy. The manner in which the script tries to infuse him with some kind of back story is somewhat embarrassing. Does he have mommy issues? Daddy issues? Existential crises? Unrequited love issues? The script hints at all of these but develops none of them. At the end of the day, Legolas serves his purpose as being an utter badass/boss-killer in the fight, but nothing more. Even Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) the female elf created for these movies to both balance out the sausage fest and to provide a rather poorly realized romantic subplot for both Legolas and Kili (Aidan Turner), fares little better, and quite frankly if the two of them had been written out of the entire story the films the narrative impact would be negligible.
In fact, it's padding like the Legolas-Tauriel-Kili love triangle that kind of hits home for me how superfluous so much of this film feels, even if it is a lot of good fun. I was also a bit irked at how Smaug's demise was moved to the beginning of this film rather than made into the climax of the last one, even though it did make sense from a sales perspective. The manner in which Bard dispatches Smaug, though, is appropriately heroic, if a little comical.
I watched this in conventional 3-D rather than the somewhat jarring "high frame rate" 3-D in which I watched The Desolation of Smaug, and truth be told I'm not sorry I made the change. I did try the film in a "4-D" theater, which meant that my seat lurched back and forth and fans blew in my face for key scenes. It was a novel experience, though one which I'm not keen to repeat, much like the creepy HFR.
In closing, I liked the film enough to recommend it, especially if it's reinstated in Philippine theaters after the Metro Manila Film Festival ends next week, but certainly not enough to rank it as a modern classic the way the original trilogy of films was.
6.5/10
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